Tang Qi judged that the enemy camp was at least fifty meters away.
The woodland was mostly level, and the glow of the campfire lit his field of vision, allowing him to see clearly both the coin that shattered the arrow and the Spellcaster who flicked it out.
If magic was an arithmetic problem solved by plugging in a formula, then using magic was a practical word problem.
Anyone capable of such precision was certainly no ivory-tower bookworm who knew only how to analyze formulas.
This opponent excelled at practical application, or had once lived in an environment that demanded it, giving his spellcasting a considerable degree of creativity.
On a battlefield, people like that were often the most troublesome.
There was no point dwelling on how their tracks had been discovered.
What mattered was never complaining, but responding.
He hurriedly began humming a song and turned toward Dawn.
The battle-seasoned paladin needed no reminder. A pair of gilded wings burst open behind him, and with a decisiveness that spared no thought for the monk's pride, he leaped several meters into the air, sailed straight over the charging soldiers, and raced toward Kandelian. "[Peerless Athlete]."
A Spellcaster's spells were unpredictable and varied. Taking out the Spellcaster first had always been an immutable law of the battlefield.
Shalti understood this just as well. The moment Dawn jumped, she drew her bow and shot an arrow glowing emerald green into the crowd.
The arrowhead pointed straight down and landed in the middle of the crowd, as though nourishing the soil and causing the branches beneath the soldiers' feet,
and blades of grass to climb and intertwine, engulfing their trouser cuffs.
"Fuck! These vines have caught my feet!"
"It's [Entangle Spell]! Those savages' most fucking annoying spell!"
The soldiers swung their weapons to